Following a tender and evaluation process, ESA, acting on behalf of the European Commission, has now signed DIAS contracts with four industrial consortia. DIAS will give unlimited, free and complete access to Copernicus data and information.

DIAS provides a scalable computing and storage environment for third parties. Third parties will be empowered to offer advanced value-adding services integrating Copernicus with their own data and tools to the benefit of their own users.

The contracts, signed by Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, mean that by the second quarter of 2018, five DIAS, including the one to be developed by Eumetsat in cooperation with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and Mercator Ocean, will be available to users.

DIAS will not only provide a cloud-based one-stop shop for all Copernicus satellite data and imagery as well as information from the six Copernicus services, but will also give access to sophisticated processing tools and resources.

Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence at EC DG GROW, said, “This is a key milestone in the Copernicus programme. We are kick-starting the development of European data access and cloud processing services. “The vision of the European Commission is that the DIAS platforms will make it even easier for users from various industries and backgrounds to create Copernicus-based applications and services that will benefit people in Europe and around the world.”

The four winning consortia are:

Led by Serco Europe, consortium includes OVH, Gael Systems and Sinergise Ltd.